Use Your Heart, Not Your Words

Changing schools is always a huge ordeal; you have left your friends and your comfort zone. You have put all your energy into the school you have just left and now are expected to try and build a whole new life in this vast, strange world. Yes, that was what was expected of me between my 6th and 7th grade year of junior high in 1987, but it did not stop there. Not only was I asked to change schools, I was asked to start school right after a major surgery in which I was to start school on crutches. It would not have been so terrible had I been in casts or in a wheelchair, which I could have handled. However, to start with normal legs, or so they appeared, and to have to walk with crutches was so horrifying to me. You see, I have clubfoot. A deformity which I was born with in both the left and right foot, leaving me with over 15 surgeries on each leg up until the age of 18. I was never ashamed of my legs, until that day. I wanted to crawl into a hole and never return to the light. I did not make to many friends that day. Some people remembered me from when we went to the same grade school from before, so they had said hello, but kids are cruel. I received stares, laughter, and humiliation throughout the entire day. It was probably the most horrific day of my entire life. The problem was, it stuck with me and the rest of them forever. No one forgot that I was handicapped. I forgot the minute I could lose the crutches, but they still saw them. It is so sad that people cannot see past the physical and see what is on the inside of people. I truly believe there is more to life than a crutch or a wheelchair. People have more to offer than the speed at which they can run, walk, or jump. I believe it is what is in you heart that moves you neither your feet nor your body.

This post was written for the People History. You can visit this website at www.thepeoplehistory.com